Björk: Icelandic singer donates proceeds from new song to ending 'extraordinarily cruel' salmon farming method

Björk has taken aim at an environmentally risky fish farming practice, donating all proceeds from her new song to ending controversial open-pen salmon farming in her native Iceland.

This week, the Icelandic pop star released her new single 'Oral', a collaboration between her and Spanish singer Rosalía. The proceeds would go to a non-profit called AEGIS, she announced, an organisation fighting open-pen fish farming in Iceland. Their record companies have agreed to do the same.

All funds raised will go to supporting legal fees for protesters, and "taking action to stop the development of intensive farms that harm wildlife, deform fish, and pose risks to salmon's DNA and survival", she said. Iceland's open pen salmon farms have already come under fire recently, after footage revealed fish riddled with deadly sea lice infestations.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Björk wrote the tune was a 25-year-old song of hers, inspired by a dancehall beat - which she described as the "grandmother of reggaeton". "Rosalía's experiments with the genre and her incredible voice made her an obvious guest for the song," she continued. "I feel blessed she said yes, and she and her team are giving their work and all the profits to this battle."

They had assembled a team of people from some of the biggest eco-groups in Iceland, she said, with lawyers that would take on other open net pen fish farming cases. "I would like to thank them all for all their hard voluntary work. "

Björk, who has long been an advocate for environmental causes in her homeland, said: "Industrial salmon farming in open net pens is horrid for the environment. The farmed salmon [go] through immense suffering, and it causes severe harm for our planet. This is an extraordinarily cruel way to make food," she continued. "The fight against the open net pen industry is a part of the fight for the future of the planet."

One of the most severe environmental challenges the northern seas were facing was ocean acidification, she said. This is when seawater absorbs more carbon dioxide that usual, kick-starting a chain of chemical reactions that make the water more acidic - and can cause problems like weakening coral reefs and the shells of sea creatures.

"In the space of 5 years, Norwegian open sea fish farming of companies MOWI and SalMar have already damaged big areas in our fjords," Björk continued. She said marine life, animals and plants had all been harmed. "We can still reverse this. Our legal cases on biodiversity, cruelty to animals and more could become exemplary cases around the world."

NationalWorld has approached both MOWI and SalMar for comment. Open pen fish farms are where species like salmon are raised out in the open sea, contained by nets to stop them swimming away. Seafood watchdog SeaChoice writes, however, that it is considered a high-risk method of aquaculture.

Open-net pens allow "free exchange of waste, chemicals, parasites and disease" between captive salmon and wild fish and ecosystems, they write. "There is also the potential for farmed fish to escape. Farms can also attract predators, such as marine mammals, that can get tangled in fish farm nets and drown."